New Jersey Devils Open 2024 Preseason With 4-2 Loss to New York Islanders

Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt each registered two points, and Jacob Markstrom looked solid in his Devils debut

Welcome back to New Jersey Devils hockey! It’s been a long spring, summer, and early fall without Jersey’s Team, and after a terribly disappointing 2023-24 season it feels so nice to start a new chapter with the club. Of course, watching winning hockey would be even better, but the Devils could not oblige on the first night of the preseason, as they fell to the New York Islanders 4-2 at the Prudential Center Sunday evening.

The game really could not have started much better. 29 seconds in, Adam Pelech was tagged for a holding penalty, sending New Jersey to their first power play. About 90 seconds into the man advantage, Jesper Bratt collected a turnover in the offensive zone and slipped a pretty no-look pass to Nico Hischier in the slot who wired a shot home to open the scoring early in the first period.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately it was mostly downhill from there. The Devils did exit the first period with that 1-0 lead, thanks in part to Jacob Markstrom standing tall (more on him later). But the Islanders scored twice in the second, one goal by Anders Lee:

…and one by Julien Gauthier:

Between those goals, Jesper Bratt did register a pretty score of his own though. Tomas Tatar (welcome back old friend!) created a turnover in the neutral zone, and Hischier sprung Bratt for a partial breakaway. One Jesper Bratt silky smooth move later, and the Devils briefly held a one-goal lead again:

The third period was all Islanders. New York registered the only two goals of the period, with the tiebreaker coming from an impressive solo effort from Cam Thiesing:

That’s one Nico Daws, who took over for Markstrom at the start of the final frame, probably wants back. The Devils couldn’t find the answer (in fact they only put four shots on net in the entire third period), and with the net empty in the final minutes, Simon Holmstrom potted an empty-netter with five seconds left to ice the game. I don’t know about you, but I started getting flashbacks of last season when the Islanders put one in the empty net. 2023-24 was maddening for a lot of reasons, and one of those reasons was New Jersey’s remarkable ineptitude when pulling their goalie. It usually meant an automatic goal for the bad guys, and tonight was a continuation of that.

There were encouraging moments in this game which we’ll get into. But overall it was a bit of a flat showing from the team. Certainly not from a lack of effort, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Right now the most important things this team can do is stay healthy and get reps in. A win would have been nice, but for now, it’s just so nice to have Devils hockey back.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

Leaving His Mark

The lineup featured a handful of intriguing newcomers, and at the top of that list was the starting goaltender tonight, Jacob Markstrom.

After coming over from the Calgary Flames in June, Markstrom arguably became the single most important player on the roster the instant the trade was completed. Aside from 2022-23, it feels like every Devils season over the past decade has been derailed in part by shoddy goaltending. Markstrom comes over with a reputation for being an upper tier goalie in the league, with a particular knack for saving high danger shots, a point the MSG broadcast spent some time discussing tonight.

Markstrom played the first two periods of the game, stopping 17 of 19 shots. That’s not a great save percentage, but the second goal is pretty hard to pin on him. Yes I know, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say “You can’t blame the goalie for that one” over the past few seasons, I would’ve been able to retire by now. But Markstrom did make some very strong saves to go along with the two goals he let up, including this beauty in the first period:

There’s one of those high danger saves!

Overall I thought Markstrom looked fine. He didn’t wow me, and he didn’t worry me. But after all the goalie anguish over the years, I would sign for “fine” in a heartbeat. Let’s hope Markstrom is finally, finally, finally the answer in net.

The Other New Kids On The Block

The rest of that list of intriguing newcomers deserves mention as well. One of the two big defenseman signings the Devils made in the offseason was Brenden Dillon. The big left-shot defenseman was paired with Dougie Hamilton (more on him later too), which was interesting to me considering Jonas Siegenthaler, Hamilton’s partner for the vast majority of his time in the Garden State, was also in the lineup. Perhaps new head coach Sheldon Keefe (say it with me…more on him later) has decided the Hamilton-Siegenthaler pairing has run it’s course.

Either way, I thought Dillon looked fine as well. Much like Markstrom, he didn’t wow me, but didn’t worry me either. I thought he had a very “Offensive Lineman” game, in that I didn’t notice him much but I mean that in a good way. The few times I did really notice him out there were generally positive. The advanced numbers weren’t particularly kind to him, as Natural Stat Trick had him at a 5-on-5 Expected Goals For% of 42.88%. But I thought he looked better than that.

Another blueline addition that saw his Devils debut tonight was Jonathan Kovacevic. The depth defenseman came over in a trade with the Canadiens in the offseason, and he comes with a reputation for being a big, bruising, imposing defender. Kovacevic is listed at 6’5”, 223lbs according to NHL.com, which certainly fits the profile of an intimidating defensive defenseman. NST had him at a 5-on-5 xGF% of 68.15%, third highest on the team, so it was a strong debut for Kovacevic. That’s encouraging considering we may be seeing a lot of him early in the season due to injuries to Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce.

Finally, Paul Cotter is the other big new name that played tonight. Coming over from the Golden Knights in a trade (the one that sent Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid to Sin City), Cotter was marketed as a gritty fourth liner with surprising skill. I thought he lived up to that reputation tonight, as his line with Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian put in some hard work and had some of the best moments of the game. In fact that trio played 9:55 5-on-5 minutes together, and they registered a 65.61% xGF%, a very strong showing. Much like the rest of the team though, I thought they faded as the game went on. That may very well be New Jersey’s fourth line to start the season, so it’s promising to see them perform well.

Hello Again

Tonight’s contest also saw the return of some familiar faces.

We haven’t seen Dougie Hamilton since November 28th, 2023, the game in which he injured his pectoral muscle, ending his season. It was so nice to see the Devils’ number one defenseman play hockey again. Dougie was very noticeable to me tonight, playing his same old shoot first, ask questions later style. Aside from Hamilton’s penchant for firing the puck from every angle, it was also very noticeable just how much the Devils missed his ability to break the puck out of his zone. Man does he know how to make an outlet pass! It wasn’t a perfect night for him, but it was great to see him return to action.

Meanwhile, Tomas Tatar and Stefan Noesen reintroduced themselves to the Devils faithful tonight. Tatar last played with New Jersey in 2022-23, putting together a stellar campaign playing mostly with Hischier and Dawson Mercer down the stretch of that season. Noesen hasn’t donned a Devils sweater since the 2018-19 season, but he decided to sign with New Jersey in the offseason after spending the last three seasons in Carolina. Tatar lined up with Hischier and Bratt, while Noesen was on a line with Ondrej Palat and Shane Bowers. That line Noesen played with in particular seems like one Keefe would roll with to start the season, except instead of Bowers it would be Erik Haula between Palat and Noesen. I thought both Tatar and Noesen looked adequate, much like the rest of the team. Hopefully the veterans get stronger as the preseason goes on.

Chief Keefe

Sheldon Keefe spent the past few seasons in the pressure cooker that is Toronto. After much regular season success but not much postseason success, the Maple Leafs decided to part ways with him, and general manager Tom Fitzgerald pounced at the opportunity to hire him to run his own team.

On Friday, John took a look at what we might be able to expect from Keefe this season. That’s a good starting point as to what to watch as far as new tactics and philosophies go, and tonight was the first game action we saw under the new bench boss. I don’t want to read too much into one preseason game, especially one with a ton of regulars missing. But as Keefe and the Devils get more preseason games under their belts, we might get a better grasp on just how Keefe will run things in New Jersey.

Another Newcomer

The list of new names did not stop at the on-ice personnel. Tonight was also the debut of Rachel Herzog, who takes over for Erica Wachter as the new host and analyst for Devils broadcasts on MSG.

Herzog was a college hockey player at St. Cloud State in Minnesota, and previously worked as a sports reporter and anchor in Fargo, North Dakota. The rest of the broadcast featured all the other familiar names from Bill Spaulding to Ken Daneyko to Bryce Salvador.

Welcome to New Jersey, Rachel. Here’s to a fun and prosperous first season with the New Jersey Devils!

And one more thing while I’m talking about the MSG broadcast…to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the new scorebug. It’s not awful, but I prefer the old one. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually though.

Winning Even When They Lose

A year ago, the Devils went undefeated in the preseason, a perfect 7-0. We all know the disappointment that followed.

Thankfully that jinx is no longer with us, as tonight guaranteed we’re not talking about yet another perfect preseason. Tonight’s game was the first preseason loss since October 6, 2022…also to the New York Islanders. It was a good run, but thank goodness that preseason dominance is over.

Next Time Out

The Devils travel up to Montreal on Tuesday to battle the Canadiens in game number two of the preseason. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take

The Devils are back, and so are your takes! What did you make of tonight’s contest? Which of the newcomers stood out to you the most? What about the returning players? Were you encouraged by Markstrom’s debut? What did you think of Keefe’s debut? What were your thoughts on Herzog’s first broadcast? As always, thanks for reading, and here’s to another season of Devils hockey!